I've got 99 problems (but you aren't one)
by KeyWolf25888
Summary: Saki Giichi is a businessman training to take over his father's company, having grown up in America. In charge of putting together a company function, he hires a violinist with a dark past as part of the entertainment.
1. Chapter 1

_Hello there, Takumi-kun fandom! I've been a fan of the series for several years, but this is my first foray into writing fanfiction for it (although not my first time writing fanfiction at all)._

 _This fic will mostly take place in New York, a place which I am not familiar at all. I'm not even American. Nor do I know a great deal about Japan. Or how business of this kind works. So really I'm completely in over my head here, so if you spot anything I get wrong, feel free to point it out, I'll be very grateful._

 _I don't know for sure how long this fic will be - I've got 10 chapters outlined so far, and that's probably only about half of it. The chapters after this one will probably be a bit longer than this... I have a habit of going overboard sometimes._

 _With that said, I don't know when I'll update, I have an exam next week that I should have been revising for instead of writing this *sobs*_

* * *

Gii ran a stressed hand through his hair. Picking up the phone from his desk again, he continued the conversation. "Yes, I understand that you can't make it, sir. I'm sorry about your wife, of course you need to take care of her. My condolences."

Damnit. He hung up the phone, feeling the stress creep up his throat. "What to do, what to do..." he muttered to himself, beginning to pace around the room.

He didn't even realise that his hand had made its way back into his hair until a gentle cough from behind him brought him out of his musings. Whipping his hand off his head and spinning around, Gii did his best to pretend like he wasn't totally stressing out.

"Are you okay, Mr Saki?" One of the company's employees, one assigned to help Gii to plan this function, was stood looking concernedly at him from the doorway. Cringing internally, Gii did his best to appear as calm as possible, drawing on years of practice.

Nodding, he affirmed that he was okay, and the staff member took his leave. Once he was gone, Gii walked around his desk to shut the door, which had been left open before, and then flopped into his desk chair. He glared at the phone, wishing with all his might that it hadn't rung with that particular message.

How was he supposed to show his dad he could successfully organise a business function if people kept pulling out? Last week it had been the caterers – he had only been lucky that he had had enough time that he could easily organise something with another company. Now the man he had employed to play the piano for the event had had to cancel due to his wife being hospitalised. Gii couldn't even hate him for that, it was a good reason.

Still though, he would need to think of someone to replace him. He ran through his mental list of people it could be... and remembered exactly why he hadn't asked any of them – each of them was busy on the night for one reason or another. Letting out a groan, he realised that he was going to have to ask one of the other staff to find someone that could do it, since he wouldn't have the time to figure it out for himself.

After spending a good minute trying to tame his hair (after all, he always had to appear presentable) he gave up and called through his assistant.

He waited anxiously for her to arrive. It really wasn't what he wanted to do; he had had everything figured out by this point, and it really was a let down that a spanner had been thrown into the works this late in the planning.

Despite having already deduced that there was no musician that he could think of to fill in, he found himself mulling over the situation still.

"Sir?" Gii jumped when Jessica, the assistant he had asked for, knocked on the office door. Taking a second to compose himself, he called for her to come in.

Gii steeled himself to break the bad news to her. "Mr Jeffords can no longer play at the function, his wife's unwell. I need you to book someone else."

Jessica looked at him with an expression of horror. "But we already told your father that everything was signed off and organised. How will we tell him about this?"

Gii shook his head. "It's okay, I'll talk to him. My only concern is that we might not be able to find a replacement in time; I suggest asking around for someone unknown in order to make such a last minute arrangement more favourable."

Nodding her head in agreement, Jessica looked relieved. "Thank you sir. I'll make it my priority, I'll try to have someone lined up by tomorrow."

She left quickly, and Gii was left alone again. Every instinct inside him was screaming at him to just relax for a bit, to do work... to do whatever he needed to in order to put off explaining why the function, once again, wasn't completely sorted.

Only a great amount of practising of self control managed to force him to stand up from his chair, walk over to the door and went out into the corridor.

It always felt slightly surreal, finally working in this place after so long of coming here with his parents.

Something about being able to stride around the building in the knowledge that he would be running it all one day... well, it was terrifying. A good prospect, sure, one day, but at the moment it was the most terrifying thing he could imagine.

Part of him didn't like the idea that he was running to his dad for help, especially given what the planning of the part was meant to represent, but it couldn't be helped just yet. Gii thought himself smart enough to admit where he needed help, or guidance.

Smiling at his dad's receptionist, sat at her desk outside the CEO's office, he knocked on the door, hoping that his dad wasn't busy. He usually wasn't at this time of day, but there was no way of telling.

After a short silence, Gii heard the sound of shuffling feet before the door opened. His dad stood there, looking happy to see him. "Son!" He exclaimed, motioning for him to come into the room.

Gii walked into the familiar office. It had been decorated the same way ever since he could remember, despite how hard his mom had tried to convince him to redecorate over the years. It was always mildly comforting to come in here, and memories of a childhood full of sitting quietly in the corner of the room reading came flooding into his head. It jarred with his current situation, one where there was unequivocally more responsibility resting on his shoulders than seeing how many books he could read in one sitting.

"So, what can I help you with, Giichi?" His dad asked, and Gii cringed internally a little. His dad always insisted on calling him Giichi instead of Gii while they were at work, and it still felt strange. He sat down in the chair behind his desk, and Gii sat gingerly on the chair on the other side of it.

He took a minute to think of how to phrase it in a way that wouldn't make him seem incompetent. "Well, I know that I told you last week that all the details for next week's function were finalised?Though a circumstance completely out of my control, that's... not longer the case." Seeing his dad begin to look disappointed, Gii hastened to add, "don't worry though, it's nothing disastrous, it's only the musician we hired dropped out. I've got Jessica on the case to get a replacement though, so don't worry."

His dad nodded. "Ah, I see. Well, so long as you find someone – and I'm sure you will – that's totally fine. I have every faith in you that this function will turn out great." He smiled at Gii, and it made him feel a little better.

If it didn't work, it would look so bad for him, as his dad then went on to remind him. "Don't forget that this is a test, Giichi. I need to know that when you take over the company, you will be competent in all areas. One of those is being able to network effectively, and functions are a crucial element of that."

Gii nodded along, trying not to act too bored. Sure, it was important, Gii would absolutely, but... he knew all that already? They had gone over this several times already.

Either way, thank goodness it had gone okay. There had been the slight possibility that his dad may have been in one of his stricter, less forgiving moods, and if that had been the case... well, this meeting might not have gone down so well.

He was so caught up in the relief that things were going well that he nearly didn't catch what his dad said to him next. "Are you sure you don't want us to find you a date for it, son?" Gii stayed silent, reeling a little, trying to process it. "Because we just found out that the daughter of -"

"No!" Gii interjected, finding his voice at last. His dad looked a little shocked at his outburst, and Gii rushed to follow it up. "I don't want a date. I mean, I'm going to have enough on my plate with planning this whole thing, never mind having to worry that someone else is having a good time, right?" He put a forced laugh in there to make it seem real.

Fortunately his dad seemed to buy it, laughing along and nodding. "Alright, I just thought I'd check. If you change your mind though, just say, I'm sure we could work something out." He ended the sentence with a wink, and Gii wasn't entirely sure what he was implying there.

Nevertheless, he nodded like he did understand. "Well, I think that's everything. Thanks for understanding, dad." He stood up to leave.

His dad stood up too, and walked him over to the door of the office. "I'm proud of you for handling this so well, son," he said, clapping Gii on the shoulder. "And it's been nice to be able to take the back seat for once." He laughed, and Gii laughed too – if it was this stressful he couldn't blame his dad for not wanting to organise it himself.

With a parting handshake, Gii left the office and headed back to his own. He felt lighter now, thankful that the parts he had had to handle were done with. It wouldn't stop him worrying about it until he knew that they had a replacement, but for now there was nothing he could do to effect the outcome.

He simply had to trust that Jessica could find someone just as talented to play the music at the function. He was fairly certain that she would, but it was still an important component of the whole piece. He had known plenty of similar functions where the music had been so awful as to affect the business relations between people for years to come. That would be the worst possible outcome of this, especially since this was really a test to see if he was up to it.

Gii finally relaxed as he closed the door of his office behind him. Slumping against the wall for a second, he took a minute to catch his breath and release the tension that had crept into his muscles towards the end of the meeting.

There was very little he had left to do today – a little paperwork, but nothing that would take a huge amount of time. It meant that he could take a little while to himself – and allowed him to take a while to enjoy his favourite part of this office.

Pushing himself off the wall, he walked over to the other side of the room, to the window that took up an entire wall of the room. It gave great views of the New York city skyline, and particularly at times like this, when the sun was beginning to set, it was almost magical. He could look at it for hours, just taking it in, and he often found himself doing just that.

His earlier mild annoyance at his dad came trickling back the more he thought over the conversation he had just had.

It hadn't just been the asking if he wanted a date for this function, although it did seem to have been a catalyst for his parents asking more than usual. It had been something his parents did regularly for... well, for as long as it had been acceptable for them to ask him if he had a girlfriend.

The problem wasn't so much that he didn't want to date... more that he didn't have any interest in girls.

Being well aware that at some point he would be expected to marry as part of the company, Gii knew that at some point he would have to figure out what to do about the situation. But that could be put off for as long as possible, left for future-Gii to sort out.

For now though he would simply have to resign himself to being dateless at functions like this one, but that was okay with him.

He stayed looking outside for as long as he could get away with. After today's worry, he needed some time to slow down and enjoy life.

Gii was working on his computer the next day when another knock on the door interrupted him. Calling out for them to come in, he was glad to take a break from spreadsheets for a bit.

Jessica poked her head around the door. She didn't look like she was going to deliver bad news, and Gii became hopeful.

"Well it took a while, and lots of phone calls, but I think I found someone," she began.

Gii grinned. "You did? And they're okay with being hired on such short notice?"

"Um..." Jessica hesitated, and Gii's hopes fell a little. " It's fine!" Jessica blurted out, presumably seeing his expression darken. "I mean, I hope you don't mind, but I couldn't find anyone local. I tried asking around some of the other people that have organised these sorts of things, and there were a bunch of musicians that were still busy. But then I got a stroke of luck, and I talked to the manager of a violinist that would be willing to do it."

Gii frowned. "That's great, but how not-local is he? What are you not telling me?"

"Ah..." Jessica fidgeted a little. "The man who recommended him said that he was really really good, but he lives in Japan, and I thought that you might like that because I know that you're Japanese and all, and the manager said that it would be fine so long as you paid for the travel expenses, and -"

"Jessica." Gii cut her off firmly. "Calm down. I don't mind that he needs flying in, it's not like we haven't had to fly people in before. All I really care about is that we have someone to fill the part. You did well."

Jessica finally stopped hyperventilating, and breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. I'll go right away and call them to let them know he's hired. Shall I book the plane tickets, sir?"

"Yes, please do. The sooner we we get this whole thing finalised, the sooner I can relax," Gii chuckled.

Jessica laughed politely, and turned around to leave.

Then Gii's curiosity caught up with him, and he absently wondered if he'd heard of this violin genius before. "Wait," he called out. Jessica paused with the door open, half turning to face him. "What's his name?"

"Takumi," Jessica replied. "Takumi Hayama."

* * *

 _Thoughts? Did you like it? Did it make sense? Please leave me a comment and let me know._

 _If you want to chat about... anything really, you can find me at my twitter Alltheaus, or my tumblr whatevenisthisbloganymore_

 _Thanks for reading ^_^_


	2. Chapter 2

_I'm not sure I like the first part of this chapter... but the rest of it's fine. Apologies for this chapter taking a while to arrive, I'm trying to work on too many fics at the same time... *sigh*. Also, for those of you who wished me luck with my exam, thank you! I got an okay mark in it!_

 _Anyway, yes, on with the fic!_

* * *

Gii tapped his foot on the floor. "What do you mean the flowers are here yet?"

The woman in front of him visibly trembled. "I- I'm sorry sir. The delivery company rang us not long ago, and said that some of the batch were wilted. They sent off for a new lot to be delivered as a priority, but they still won't be here for another hour at least."

Sighing through his nose, Gii did his best to calm his stress. He was beginning to get a headache, and that really would be counterproductive today.

"Okay. Right. Good." His response was short, but he didn't have the mental capacity to think of anything more to say – plus he didn't really have to say any more. He was too busy thinking about everything else that was still yet to be set up to be able to give too much of his time to this.

The food was being delivered soon for the hired chefs to cook, and that really was something that couldn't afford to go wrong. The chefs had been put on a strict schedule to get the food done exactly to time, and if ingredient were even a little late in arriving it would throw everything off and then the whole evening would be thrown off and his dad would be disappointed and...

Realising that his thoughts were beginning to spiral, he began to power walk over to where the food would be being delivered. It should be getting there about now, and it was simply another thing to check off his mental checklist. More importantly, it would show his parents that he was capable of being good at organising.

Not that he hadn't been proving himself capable of this sort of thing for a while, but still, this was The Big One™ and it could even make or break him for the next few years, at least.

By the time he reached the kitchens, the food had already been delivered. Catching his breath, he stood and observed the chefs for a while, doing his best to seem as much like an aloof employer as possible.

Perhaps to them it might have seemed convincing, but unbeknownst to him his mother had also slipped inside the kitchen and stood beside him. "All seems to be going well," she said quietly in his ear.

Gii jumped about a foot in the air as she did, taken completely by surprise and unsure whether she meant it as a compliment or that she hadn't been expecting that to happen. He simply nodded, unwilling to commit to an answer for now.

It felt strange, to be stood there motionless while the bustle of the kitchen went on around them. Not only was it jarring, but it reminded Gii that he had other things to attend to as well as the food. Making quiet excuses to his mother, who nodded understandingly (she probably also had things to check on in preparation for this evening) Gii strode through the kitchen and out of the doors that led into the main part of the venue itself.

The hotel ballroom that they had chosen this time was done up much fancier than it usually was, and get all Gii could think about was looking at it with a critical eye, to make sure that it was all as he had planned it to be. Coloured banners had been hung, tablecloths had been draped over tables, the stage was set for the musician booked. The flowers for the tables hadn't arrived yet, but for now it seemed like everything was going to plan.

Well, that was some form of relief. It didn't really stop Gii from continuing to mull the decisions over in his head (and it was unlikely that he would stop worrying about it until the night had ended), but it did mean that he could afford to leave in about half an hour to get changed into a more party-esque outfit.

Before that though, he would make one more circuit of the parts of the hotel reserved for the function, just to make sure all was well. His parents would be around still, of course, and would be changing their outfits closer to the time, once he had returned.

Walking back through the rooms slowly, taking in all of the details to make sure he hadn't missed anything, he was glad to see that nothing seemed to be going wrong. Reaching the back, he noticed the lorry delivering the flowers pulling up to the back entrance, and he breathed an actual sigh of relief. He watched for a minute as the workers scrabbled to unload it, and was certain that what had been delivered was correct.

It didn't take as long as he thought to rush home and put on his fanciest suit. Having attended this kind of thing for most of his life, starting from when he was very young, he didn't find it difficult at all to dress well for them. In fact it was mostly muscle memory at this point, being done on autopilot and before he knew it, he was ready.

Checking the time on his watch, he saw that he still had a few minutes before he needed to leave. Early, as always. Gii prided himself on his ability to be punctual and organised, and it was rare that he failed.

Deciding to use his remaining time wisely, Gii made his way over to the bathroom. Nothing like a good pep-talk to get him in the mood for a party, right?

Resting his hands on the counter that held the sink, Gii looked up into the mirror set above it. From an outside perspective, he seemed to be what he wanted to be. Calm. Collected. On fleek.

But most importantly he looked like the businessman that he wanted to be. That he was.

Being able to see it went some way to getting rid of his anxiety as well. No matter if he didn't feel like he was as put together as he wanted to be, he could certainly do what he had always done and put forward the appearance of being so.

'You can do this,' Gii told himself as he glared at himself through his reflection. 'Everyone is going to love you. You already know most of them. This is just formalities. Dad has been pleased with all the planning. There's no way it can go wrong at this point.'

A faint beeping from his watch alarm pulled him out of his pre-game pep talk, and he straightened up, turning the alarm off. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, doing his best to relax as much as possible as he did. There was no more time for deliberation.

Speeding his way back to the hotel, Gii did his best to keep his nerves at bay. Deep breathing and focussing on the things that he could control (in this case, getting to the hotel on time and making sure that this evening went smoothly) were the ways in which he kept calm on occasions like this.

Sometimes he cursed himself for not being as good as this as he had been trained to be. After all, this would be his life after his father passed the management of the company over to him, and throughout his life he had been made to attend plenty of these types of functions as part of his training for that.

As had been planned, Gii entered the building just as his parents left. They wouldn't be gone long, he knew, since it was only an hour to go until it started and there was always the chance that some might turn up early.

Taking a walk to make sure that nothing had gone wrong in his absence, Gii was pleased to note that the flowers were arranged just as he had imagined them, and that the place cards had been put in the correct order as per the seating chart that he had put together.

Taking a quick break, he sat in one of the chairs in the lobby and allowed the gentle sounds of people rushing around, doing their jobs, to wash over him. The soft cream tones of the place were oddly calming somehow, and Gii tried to just observe, and not worry too much about controlling things. At some point there might have been people sat on the chairs next to him, but if there were he didn't really notice them very much. However, he did watch the people who sat up and got up and moved around on the chairs opposite, on the other side of the large room, and he found it odd how the use of the hotel could still go on. Plenty of them were clearly tourists, wearing mismatched travel clothing and too-large suitcases that they struggled to pull along behind them. Gii could sympathise with that, he had done plenty of travelling in his time.

To be completely honest he didn't know how long he had sat there, but what he did know was that it was his father coming back that broke his trance. "...son? Giichi?" Gii blinked, and looked up. His father was leaning down over him, a concerned look in his eyes. "Are you okay? You know, if you're really not up to this it's okay, there will always be another ch -"

"No," Gii interrupted. "I mean, I'm fine, I can do this." His father looked pleased, and Gii hauled himself up and out of the cushy chair.

The first few guests had arrived, and were standing and talking, with glasses of champagne in their hands, in the section of the ballroom designed for that exact purpose. Gii knew that this was the place where a good portion of the business deals that would be made tonight would take place, and so it had to set just the right mood to facilitate it most efficiently.

Everything was looking good... the room was beginning to fill up, but there weren't too many people here yet... yet Gii couldn't shake the nagging feeling that something was missing.

Trying to look around the room sneakily, without looking weird, Gii tried to figure out what was off about it.

Everything was set up right, just has it had been earlier... then his eyes moved to look at the far end of the room, and instantly Gii realised what it was. The musician hadn't arrived yet.

Gii frowned. Oh yeah, he had forgotten about that. He was meant to be Japanese too, right?

What began as looking around to see if any of his assistants were around – he really needed to be able to talk to one of them about this – turned into just observing who was here. The more he looked, the more he began to feel out of place. It wasn't the first time that had been the case at a function like this, but it was all the more acute when he was the host. Everyone else here was just so old, and white. Gii was neither of those things, and while he was certainly just as capable as any of them, it didn't help his confidence.

Finally he saw one of his assistants walking towards him with a worried look on her face. This immediately made Gii more concerned about what might have been going on – not having some form of music in the background wouldn't ruin the whole night, but it certainly would run the risk of making him and his family look bad.

"Bad news," she said as she came within hearing range, but keeping her voice low enough that none of the guests would be able to easily overhear the conversation. "Our violinist is stuck in traffic right now, so that's why he's not here yet."

Gii nodded. That was understandable, traffic was something out of the control of anyone and he couldn't entirely fault him for it. But if that was the issue, then why did the woman in front of him still look more worried than would be necessary for a simple traffic issue?

"But there's some more stuff," she bit her lip, clearly struggling to word whatever she was trying to tell him. "I've only just received an email that was supposed to be sent last week about this man. Um, he has a few... special requests that need to be kept in mind."

Gii nodded again, beginning to get a little impatient. "That's fine, what are they?"

"Uh... well he can't be touched..." she looked up at him as though she was expecting him to get mad at her for it. Sure, that was an odd request, but he'd dealt with clients with stranger ones before. From wanting all the guests to try some obscure weird food from their native country (it had taken buckets of water to get the taste of the _strömming_ out of his mouth) or insisting that Gii needed to face away from him every time they met in person, somehow they had always been complied with.

"But our real problem is something else actually... he doesn't speak English much, and we don't have a translator..."

What? Most of the musicians that they had hired for these sorts of things were either native English speakers, or had had fancy enough upbringings along with their classical music education that most of them spoke English to a proficient degree. The fact that this would be one that wouldn't be able to speak English straight off blew his mind a little.

This... this would make everything so much more difficult.

Gii stood there, frozen. "How... what...?" Were the only things that came out of his mouth. His eyes darted wildly around the room. The guests were _here_. The musician would be here soon. They didn't have time to get hold of a translator. In theory Gii's parents could have done the job, but they were seriously busy doing business deal things.

That meant that the only option was... him. "I'll do it," he blurted out, and then realised what a terrible idea that was. Yes, he spoke Japanese, but over the past few years he had only used it with his family, and even then it was only sometimes. As a result his Japanese was extremely rusty – would he even be up for having a conversation with someone that he didn't already know, never mind translating?

The assistant's eyes widened. "You will?" She seemed about as surprised as Gii was, to be honest.

Slowly, Gii nodded. "I... I guess I will, yeah. Or at least, I'll do my best."

She sighed in relief. "Thank you sir! That's so kind of you, things are looking less bad now." She took a deep breath and released it, a clear sign that she was trying to avoid panicking. "I'll bring him straight to you when he gets here."

Before Gii could protest – how soon would that be? - she was gone, off to sort some other minor detail out, no doubt. Oh god.

What had he done?

Trying to keep his breathing and general outwards appearance normal, Gii walked to the edge of the room to try to avoid having to talk to anyone. He would probably be fine with making small amounts of conversation with the musician when he arrived, but if he knew anything about the rest of the guests he was sure that at some point they would want to talk to the musician and what if they used really complicated language and he didn't know it and he made mistakes because he didn't know much about the language of music in English never mind Japanese and...

There was just so much that could go wrong.

For a while he attempted to run through some of the Japanese lessons he had been forced to go to as a teenager in his head, before realising that it had been too long ago for him to remember exactly what any of them had been about, or to remember some of the more complicated grammar rules. Instead he then tried to focus on some of the more simple stuff, but then that was _too_ simple, the kind of knowledge of Japanese that had been in his head since he was a child and had grown up knowing Japanese as well as English.

Shit, none of this was helping.

Gii slumped against the wall, trying to conserve his strength for the rest of the evening. Watching more and more guests arrive, Gii couldn't help but worry that he might have to act as a middleman for translating for the musician for _all_ of these people. Obviously he would if he had to, but like... he really didn't want to have to.

Uh oh.

One of the men noticed him hiding in the corner and began to walk over. Gii internally groaned – he really didn't have the brainpower to make light conversation with someone that he really didn't know while he was focussing on this.

"Hello young man," the stranger greeted him. "Aren't you a little young to be at something like this?"

Hearing those words brought back a lifetime of memories from attending functions of this type.

 _Gii hid behind his dad's legs as the tall man in front of him leaned down to ruffle his hair. "Aren't you a little young to be here?"_

 _Shaking his head, Gii mumbled his disagreement. His dad did his best to push him further forward, but to no avail, Gii was too busy being shy._

 _He hadn't wanted to come tonight. His dad had promised that there would be other little boys his age to play with, but then all of them had pulled out and so he was left alone, clinging to his parents the entire evening._

 _Yes, he probably was too young to be here. But even at this young age, Gii knew that this was the sort of thing that his daddy did for his job, and he wanted to be able to do it just as well as he did._

 _At seventeen, Gii was a pro at dealing with events like these. He had been brought to them ever since he could remember, paraded around by his parents as their pride and joy, and as a child he had enjoyed it a lot, not finding anything strange in it._

 _But over the years the amount of people his age had dwindled, the children of his parents' business partners either unwilling to be a part of this or doing something more important that night (there really was no in between). This left him in the awkward position of not really having anyone to talk to tonight, too awkward to trail after his parents like he had done when he was small, and yet not quite enough of an equal to be able to talk to any of the old men there on his own merits._

" _Young man, are you not too young to be part of this?" A voice came from behind him. Gii spun around, a polite and fake smile on his face already._

 _There stood a man he didn't recognise -unusual, since most of the people in his parents' circle had practically watched him grow up through these things, and knew exactly who he was and probably his latest exam results too._

 _Being this age was just irritating really. He was too young to properly feel a part of these meetings, and yet he was too old to distract those who might question it with cuteness. There was just no way to win, and Gii couldn't stand it. "Um, no, I'm not too young." His response came out a little sharper than he had intended, but hopefully it would get the message across._

 _The stranger narrowed his eyes a little. "Alright, no need to get so upset about it." He stalked away, and Gii felt a little bad for being harsh about it. It wasn't like he was to know how often Gii had been asked that question. But still._

Gii gave him a polite smile. Really he should have been prepared for more people to ask things like this. After all he had been the one to make up the guest list, and he knew full well that some of these people were much more well acquainted with his father rather than with him.

"Ah, you could say that, I suppose," Gii did his best to stay polite. "but I'm actually the one who organised this." If he hadn't felt out of place before, he definitely would after having this conversation.

The man took a sip of the champagne he was holding. "Really? I thought that it was being arranged by..." his face screwed up in concentration, "Giichi Saki?"

Years of training was the only thing stopping Gii from not reacting to that. To be fair, it could be an easy mistake if this man was in fact much more familiar with his father, but even so, it was usually common courtesy to know the face of your host for the evening.

"That's me. Perhaps you were mistaking me for my father." Gii said shortly. He really wasn't in the mood to act more friendly than he was really feeling.

The man blinked slowly, and cocked his head to the side. "It is?"

 _Resist the urge to sigh..._

"Yes, sir. I am the one that organised this evening." Gii didn't enjoy having to repeat himself, but sometimes it was necessary around people like this. For all that they were supposed to be some of the most savvy people in business, in Gii's experience they weren't always all that bright when it came to more social times.

"Oh..." the man didn't seem to have anything more to say now that his initial talking point of Gii being young was gone. For a moment Gii thought that would be the end of things, but then he came back with another question. "So then why are you the host for this thing instead of your dad?"

Well if he'd thought about it for two seconds he could have come up with the answer himself, but Gii had to answer – it wouldn't do to get into trouble for something small like this when things were going so well so far. "It's a... a test of sorts, to see whether I can." He did his best to explain it as simply as possible.

Really all of this was just adding to all of his anxiety. He was going to have to deal with a genuinely stressful situation in not much time, and he was having to talk tothis buffoon. Why did this have to happen to him?

Spotting his assistant walking towards him with a serious look on her face, Gii took this opportunity while it was present itself to him. "If you'll excuse me, I need to go," Gii quickly made his excuses and walked away.

It occurred to him as he was walking how ironic it was that he had been dreading this moment and yet now things had changed to make him see it as a good thing.

"He's here," she murmured. Turning to look behind her, she gestured to the man who had just come through the main door to the hall.

It was like time had slowed down.

Gii watched as the man looked around the room with wide eyes. A sightly breeze coming in from the outside ran through his hair, and if Gii hadn't known better he could have sworn that the man was walking in slow motion. He was wearing a thick hoodie that swamped him and made him seem smaller than Gii was sure he actually was – and the sweater paws that the too-long sleeves formed on his hands were extremely cute.

Honestly it took too long for him to notice the violin case that he was holding in front of him with both hands. It gave the impression of nervousness, like the violin case was his shield from all that could go wrong tonight.

His expression was shy, and Gii's initial reaction was to simply find it cute. But when he thought about it more, something about the way that he looked around with an innocent look on his face, clutching at the handle of the case looked... somewhat familiar. Gii couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it almost seemed as though they had met sometime before? Could they have done?

No. It couldn't have been possible. If they had met in America before Gii would definitely have remembered it, and in all the times he had been to Japan he hadn't had any time for making friends his own age. It simply could never have happened.

His assistant waved at him to get his attention, and time sped back up. As soon as the man spotted her frantically waving arm, he began to make his way over.

Gii began to panic more. He had been worried enough about having to interpret for a stranger as it was, and now he was going to have to interpret for a _handsome_ stranger? That just made things ten times worse; he would have to do his best to keep his brain on track and not get distracted, and that was just an additional problem.

The closer the man got, the more Gii panicked. The closer he got, the more handsome he became, and Gii was perhaps staring a little too much to be appropriate.

Coming to a stop next to and slightly behind the assistant, the musician kept his eyes ever so slightly downwards, and frankly Gii was internally squeeing over how cute he was.

Out of the habit of a lifetime, Gii automatically extended his hand for a handshake.

As the musician flinched away from his hand, Gii remembered what the assistant had told him not half an hour before, that he didn't like to be touched.

Mentally berating himself, Gii quickly removed his hand and bowed a little instead. "It's nice to meet you," he mumbled. It was only when the musician looked a little confused that Gii realised he had been accidentally speaking in English.

"Um..." he glanced at the assistant for some kind of help, any kind of help. She shrugged, looking desperately hopeless herself.

The musician seemed more confused than any of them. " _I... I was told I was going to have a translator_?" He asked in Japanese, sounding hesitant.

Gii nodded. " _Um... yeah, that's... that's me. I mean, I'm also the host. But yeah."_

The man seemed confused again. " _Oh... Well then, um, I'm Hayama Takumi, and it's nice to meet you too."_

Okay, so far, so good. Gii began to feel more under control of the situation, and he was sure that it was visible in his own body language as he felt himself become less tense. " _I trust that you had an alright journey here?"_ He internally cringed at the awkwardness of the conversation, but he really couldn't think of anything better to say – and it really didn't help that having to look at someone so handsome was fucking with his thought process.

Takumi smiled a little, and frankly Gii had to hold himself back from squeeing at the way it lit up his face. " _Yes, it was okay, thank you. Although I wasn't quite prepared for the volume of traffic here."_ He laughed a little, and Gii joined in.

" _I'm glad to hear it,"_ he said. Then he went back into boss mode, remembering that Takumi was in fact here to do a job. " _Well the stage is all set up for you. My assistant here will direct you to a place where you can get ready, if you want to. Good luck."_ Phew. He hadn't sounded as formal as he would have liked, but clearly his Japanese wasn't as rusty as he had thought.

Takumi bowed, and said his goodbyes. "Take him to the back room, will you?" Gii told his assistant. She nodded, and gestured for him to follow her.

Gii felt a little bad for being glad that he was gone, but at the same time wished that he didn't know that he would have to translate more later.

Still, for now he could simply relax and 'enjoy' the function. Sort of.

No longer tense, Gii was happy to talk to some of the guests. A few times he caught the eyes of his parents from across the room, and they seemed pretty happy with the way things were going by the looks of it.

It had been about ten minutes since Takumi had disappeared into the back rooms, and Gii was beginning to wonder when he would emerge. It couldn't take him that long to simply get changed and take a violin out of a case, surely?

He did his best to focus on the conversation he was meant to be having with one of the men here that he actually knew somewhat well, but he was pretty sure that he knew that Gii's mind was elsewhere (hopefully he would simply assume that Gii was thinking about all the organising he did for this evening to take place, and not about cute boys).

So invested was he in not looking eager to see Takumi perform that he actually managed to miss him going onstage. The gentle sound of violin music began, and Gii jumped a little, the tension that he had built up over the past fifteen minutes making him extremely on edge.

Spinning around, he gaped at the stage.

Takumi had changed into a very professional looking suit, and somehow looked so much more confident on the stage. Gone was the shy looking boy from earlier, although he looked as cute as he did his thing.

If Gii had had any doubts about the ability of this man, given that he wasn't as acclaimed as some of the other musicians he had heard perform at this kinda of event, he certainly didn't now. Was he a professional Violinist? If he wasn't Gii was certain that he had to make it happen.

As he was busy boggling internally, Takumi noticed Gii watching him and threw him a gentle smile. _Gah_. Gii felt his heart clench in a not entirely unpleasant way. It was just so sweet.

He gulped.

He was pretty sure he was fucked.

* * *

 _Thoughts? Leave me comments, or as with last time you can reach me on twitter or tumblr, and if you want to be anonymous I also have a CuriousCat now, where I am also KeyWolf25888_

 _Thanks for reading, and have a nice day ^_^_


	3. Chapter 3

Okay, I know it's been like two months... I've been busy? Anyway, this took a lot longer to get done than I thought it would, but here it is, yay! I'll be done with uni for this year in a couple of weeks, so hopefully I'll be able to upload a little more often (although I make no promises, I have like a million wips atm).

* * *

For the thousandth time that night, Gii's eyes were drawn subconsciously to the stage. He pulled his attention back to the man in front of him guiltily, aware that they might have noticed the way that he was entirely distracted.

He just couldn't _help_ it though... Takumi looked so serene up there, and it was so nice to see. Something about it made him want to watch, not just listen to him, and it was affecting his ability to do his job (not that he was really complaining).

Still though, he didn't think the people he was meant to be talking to would notice too much. The dinner had taken place a few hours now, and he knew full well that they were all stuffed and feeling lazy, they were hardly going to be on the ball at this moment.

"... Giichi? Are you listening?" Crap. Clearly the man he was supposed to be talking to had noticed.

Quickly he turned back to him. "Yes, absolutely," he lied, staying as calm as possible. "What were you saying about the sales in your company?"

The man (honestly Gii couldn't remember his name, which was probably bad, but he was doing all of the talking, so it didn't really matter) continued to talk about things that Gii really didn't care about. He did his best to pay attention – not only was it potentially actually going to be useful when it came to their competition, but most importantly he needed to be able to make noises at the right point in the conversation to make him think Gii was listening.

How this conversation had even started Gii didn't know. He was pretty sure that he had started off talking to someone that he actually knew, and that at some point this other man had joined them and then his friend had left the two of them alone. Still, some part of him felt like he should know who he was, and he gave him another once over to try to figure it out.

It didn't help; the bald head, short stature and black tuxedo fitted the description of too many of the other guests. The generic nature of his description also admittedly made it very difficult to keep focussed on him…

Takumi looked so good...

"... and that's when my ex-wife stopped talking to me and stole all the bread rolls." Okay, maybe Gii hadn't been paying as much attention as he thought he had. Nodding as though he knew exactly what was going on, Gii tried to salvage the situation.

"That's... that's too bad," Gii laughed, hoping that it was meant to be a funny anecdote.

The man nodded, making Gii feel a little better. Then he turned to look behind him, where Gii had been distracted to all night. "That young man's quite talented, isn't he?" He commented. Perhaps Gii was a little quick to nod, but oh well, it was done now. "I might like to talk to him after this is over..." he mused. Then he turned back to Gii. "Where did you find him? I don't think I've seen him before?"

Unlike the rest of the conversation, that one statement made Gii's heart race. "Oh, I didn't really find him, one of my assistants did... I'm not entirely sure how, through contacts, I suspect." He shrugged, attempting to seem casual.

That answer didn't seem to appease the other much though. "Well that's no matter if I can talk to himself, you know. Do you mind if I do?"

"Ah..." Gii did his best to stall. "Well he only speaks Japanese, so that... might be a little difficult."

The other squinted at him. "But you speak Japanese, don't you? Could you not help an old friend out?" Gii internally cringed. Not only was this man hardly an old friend, but he had been secretly hoping that he wouldn't actually have to do too much translating. Earlier had been enough for him, and he had thought that maybe if they sent Takumi off quickly enough he might not have to do much else other than talk to him a little.

Maybe if he was lucky Takumi would keep playing for so long that this man would be too tired and go home. If he was kept from being able to that way… then Gii would not have to worry about having to translate at all.

Allowing the conversation to go on for a little while longer, Gii tried to keep himself interested in the inane things the other was telling him about. He had to do his best to keep his eyes away from the stage, and he was more successful than he had been before, and yet still not completely.

Checking his watch nervously (it was midnight already? How?), he realised that he had no idea what time they had agreed that Takumi would cease playing. Would it be soon? He didn't know; some of the musicians he had hired had been happy to continue playing as late as the party went on, but some were strict about the exact time they would be stopping. There was no way of telling just by looking… did he look kind of tired? Gii had no idea.

There was a definite conflict going on inside him. Gii didn't want to translate more than he had to, but the longer this went on the longer he would keep staring and being awkward. That really wasn't ideal.

Soon enough, Gii's fears came true. Takumi stopped playing, bowed, and left the stage, heading back to the room he had put his belongings in beforehand.

Making his excuses to the (still anonymous) man, Gii hurried off to intercept Takumi. Or at least, he attempted to.

One man grabbed his arm as he slipped through the crowds. "Excuse me," the man said, "I couldn't help but wonder who the young man playing the violin today was?" Gii fought the urge to grimace.

"He's a..." Gii went to tell him, but then realised he had no answer for him. Without his brain's consent, he found his mouth saying, "actually, why don't I let him tell you himself?" Shit, now he'd offered to translate, he really couldn't get out of it now.

This other man grinned at Gii. "Great idea! Bring him over."

Guh, great, more work.

This time Gii's walk through the rabble was slower. If Takumi left before he got there, he would have a good excuse... but then it would also be a downside to not see Takumi again. Either way he couldn't win.

As he rounded the corner to the dressing room, Gii ran into Jessica **.** She looked fairly harried, and Gii almost felt bad for her but for the fact that he was in the same boat.

"Does Takumi need to leave soon?" Gii asked quickly. The answer to this would define what happened in the next few hours, and judging by the look on her face she had no idea.

"I... I don't know," she stuttered. "I assumed you would have asked him."

Gii blinked in astonishment. "I saw him for two minutes," he said, "how would I have had the time to ask him that?"

"That's... a good point," she muttered. Then she gestured towards the door. "I guess you could ask him now?"

Gii sighed. He would have to, and he steeled himself to try to not get distracted while talking to Takumi. Still, he had to do his best to appear calm, he was technically still working. More importantly, he had to keep up appearances around his employees.

Knocking confidently on the door in front of them, Gii did his best to pretend like the action hadn't made him very nervous.

Really it was strange that it had made him so nervous; he'd done this sort of thing plenty of time, there should have been very little in doing this that would be nervous-worthy. After all, he'd pretty much been trained for talking to people like this for his entire life. He'd just spent the last six hours talking to some of the most boring businessmen he'd ever met for goodness sake, this should have been a walk in the park.

Somehow waiting for that door to open seemed to last for several hours. He could actually feel his heart rate increase slightly, and he did everything in his power to keep that from showing.

Eventually the door opened a crack. Gii could see Takumi through the crack, and he did his best to smile reassuringly. It seemed that when Takumi realised who was at the door, he immediately opened the door fully and bowed. " _Saki sama! I hope you were pleased with my performance today?"_

Had Takumi really assumed that that was what he was here for? Either way, Gii was quick to nod. " _Yes, of course! You will receive the rest of your pay soon."_

Takumi seemed relieved to hear this, as he sighed and visibly relaxed. It was only now that Gii realised that he was dressed much more casually than he had been onstage. In contrast to before, when his tuxedo had made him seem mysterious and alluring, his current attire of jeans and a hoodie made him look soft and fluffy. In short, Gii loved it just as much, if not more.

" _Thank you. Do you need anything else from me?"_ He seemed so hopeful that Gii almost didn't want to say anything about having to talk to a bunch of strangers through Gii... and yet he sort of had to. Promises were important to him.

" _Well, actually..."_ Gii began, not having a clue where he was going with this, " _a lot of the people out there really admired your playing today, and I... I think they were sort of hoping to talk to you?"_

Gii hoped that posing it as a question might make Takumi decline. He watched Takumi's face for any hint of what he might be thinking, but the other man was completely stoic as he looked at Gii. Gii wanted to think that he was merely thoughtful, actually considering the request.

When Takumi finally gave a tentative nod, Gii was genuinely surprised. _"I wouldn't mind doing it... but how will I talk to them if they know no Japanese?"_

" _I'll translate, don't worry."_ Gii surprised himself with how eager he sounded. _"Besides, you won't have to answer anything you don't want to, I'll make sure of it."_

Takumi nodded. _"Okay then. Am I okay to leave all my things here still?"_ He seemed nervous, for some reason, and Gii was quick to reassure him.

 _"Of course! Hopefully this won't take too long anyway."_ He paused. _"Do you need any more time here before you go back out here?"_

Takumi's face took on what Gii now thought of as his 'thoughtful' look, and after a moment's hesitation, replied, " _yes, if that's alright. I'll be out in a minute."_

Gii nodded, and turned to leave. It was only then that he remembered that Jessica had been there the entire time, and had no clue what was going on, judging by the look of confusion on her face. Motioning to her to follow him, Gii walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

"Is everything okay?" she asked, sounding anxious. She probably was, going by how stressful this evening had been.

Gii waved a dismissive hand. "It's all fine," he told her. "He's agreed to talk to the people out there, but he just needs a minute to... to get ready or something."

Seeming appeased, she nodded, but didn't seem to be much less anxious. "Well if it's all fine, I'm going to go then. If that's okay?" Gii couldn't deny that the idea of having some time alone with Takumi made him simultaneously nervous and excited, and so he easily gave her permission. Besides, given her lack of knowledge of Japanese, Gii couldn't imagine what use she would be.

She left quite quickly, and Gii hoped that she didn't have much more to do. It was late, and he wasn't totally work-orientated, he could appreciate that people were beginning to leave and there was less need for people to be around.

The atmosphere tense (or at least, Gii felt tense. Perhaps that was just him being nervous, actually), he waited around anxiously for Takumi to reappear.

Gii actually jumped when the door opened. It was this that made him realise just how tense he had been, and he focused to seem relaxed - it wouldn't do to have his image ruined.

" _I'm ready now_ ," Takumi smiled at him. _Thump_. His heart skipped a beat. That smile... Had Gii ever seen anything better? He didn't know.

Gii coughed, grounding himself. " _Sounds good. This way."_ He gestured towards the door to the ballroom, and walked away, allowing Takumi to follow.

" _Actually, come to think of it, would you like a drink_?" Gii asked, stopping just inside the doors. "You just did a whole lot of work in a stuffy suit, you must be thirsty?"

Takumi actually looked a little surprised. " _Yes, that would be nice, thank you_."

Walking over to the bar, Gii asked Takumi what he would like. " _Oh… just water, if that's okay_." To be fair that made sense, what with the time and the fact that alcohol probably wouldn't hydrate him.

Ordering two waters, one for each of them, they stood waiting for them to arrive in silence. Gii simply didn't know what to say; there were too many thoughts in his head, the foremost of them being 'pretty'. Despite the fact that now that they were up close to one another and Gii could see the light sheen on sweat on Takumi's face, it somehow did not take away in any way from his attractiveness.

If Gii was being honest, he was mostly trying to avoid staring too much. It wouldn't do to be seen as creepy; someone that good looking must get that all the time.

Perhaps Gii had even underestimated how dehydrated Takumi was – the moment the water arrived, Takumi chugged half the glass.

Keeping his chuckles to himself, Gii picked up his own glass and sipped it a little. When it seemed that Takumi had drunk enough, Gii asked, " _shall we continue_?"

Takumi nodded, and together they made their way back over to the main hall.

Standing on the edge of the room, Gii deliberated who to go to first. It wouldn't make a massive amount of difference, since it was likely that the same information would be given to both parties, but still, that made the choice all the more difficult.

Takumi stood beside him, waiting. Gii knew that he needed to make a decision before it became weird, and decisively took a step forward. Well, the first man he was talking to would do.

Weaving in and out of people, Gii searched for him. There were just so many people, a sea of black and white suits, it was so difficult to pick out one individual. Frankly Gii was impressed that Takumi was able to keep up with him with how often he turned and slipped between groups of chatting people. Even though it was late, and plenty of people had left already, there was still a decent amount left.

Eventually he located his friend, in the middle of talking to another group of older men. Walking up to them as confidently as possible, Gii tapped him on the shoulder. "Hello... I've brought Mr Hayama to see you."

Trying not to let on how worried he was, he glanced over at Takumi, trying to gauge whether he was feeling okay. Just like him, Takumi appeared to be covering whatever he was actually feeling.

In contrast, the businessmen in front of them were a bit drunk and more than willing to be over-friendly with them. "Hi there!" The man's voice was too loud for how close together they were, and Gii squashed down a grimace. "I'm Mr Harrington," he introduced himself, mostly addressing it towards Takumi (probably wrongly assuming that Gii would know all of them by name).

He held a hand out towards him. For a second Gii stared at it, then up at Takumi. The other man too was staring at the hand, making no move to go anywhere near it, and Gii wasn't entirely sure but he thought that Takumi's breathing might be speeding up.

Then Gii remembered why that was, and before Mr Harrington could get offended by the obvious rebuttal, he spoke up. "Oh, Mr Hayama doesn't do touching." Would that explain it adequately? The last thing Gii wanted was to be asked more questions about why that was the case - he didn't know the answers, and he didn't want to have to ask about something so personal.

Mr Harrington frowned, but didn't argue. "Oh..." He retracted his arm, and then seemed to brighten again. "Your playing is excellent, young man."

Oh boy. Time to translate. " _He says your playing is excellent."_ He debated whether to add the 'young man' into it - while he was well aware that he should be trying to be as accurate as possible, but it just seemed so unnecessarily demeaning to include.

Besides, seeing Takumi's eyes light up at the compliment made him even more unwilling to add anything that might play it down. Glancing at Gii, and then back at Mr Harrington, Takumi eagerly instructed him, " _please thank him, Saki-san,"_ and bowed slightly.

Gii was happy to relay the message, and when Mr Harrington began to deliver more intricate compliments, mentioning specific pieces he had playing, that Gii had to do his best to translate without really understanding what he was saying. Still, Takumi seemed to get it, so clearly he wasn't doing that bad of a job.

After a while it became almost mindless, to be the middleman between two people talking animatedly about music he knew nothing about. Still, when it seemed like they were finally finishing up, what they began to talk about interested Gii.

"So I'm planning a function of my own in a few months, and I've been looking for a musician for it. Do you think you'd be available?"

Gii raised an eyebrow as he relayed this information to Takumi. Almost as a continuation of the energy of the conversation, Takumi lit up, agreeing enthusiastically without seeming to take time to think about it.

The logistics of the idea seemed to take no part in the decision, and Gii couldn't decide whether that made him respect Takumi more or less. It was clear that he was looking to further his career in this way, and that wasn't really a bad thing. Besides, he could afford to make it over here to play for Gii, so it was probably possible for him to get to other ones.

Even after the decision had been made, the man seemed to want to keep the conversation going, clearly discontent with simply booking Takumi. "So how long have you been playing the violin?" He asked.

Turning to Takumi to hear his answer, Gii couldn't deny that he was a little curious about that too. Little expression was shown on Takumi's face; Gii couldn't decide what kind of reaction was going on in there.

Takumi shrugged. " _Most of my life_ ," was his answer. It did technically answer the question, Gii couldn't fault it.

When Gii related this answer back to Mr Harrington, he seemed a little weirded out about it, but he didn't say anything more. Aside from making sure that Gii had his contact details, there seemed to be little more that he wanted to say to him, and so he figured they should probably move on.

Once they had finished talking to Mr Harrington, another man tapped him on the shoulder. "Hello - I overheard you talking to Harrington just now, and I'd like to enquire about booking Mr Hayama for a dinner I wish to hold next month?"

Gii blinked, taking a second to realise what he had been asked. Recovering quickly and relaying the message to Takumi, he saw Takumi become just as ecstatic about it as he had been the first time he had been asked. As Takumi enthusiastically gave his contact details to him, Gii was struck by the realisation that this really must be one of his first big gigs. None of the other musicians had reacted like that; they had all been well known enough to be unbothered by such a thing. He had had plenty of other musicians affiliated with himself play these kinds of things, and while this kind of reaction was commonplace afterwards, it was rare to happen in the moment.

Just like Mr Harrington had, this man also seemed to want for the conversation to go on for longer. "So I learned the violin in my youth myself, but I don't think I was ever as good as you got," he laughed, and Gii took this break to translate it to Takumi. Then he continued, "perhaps if I had continued to play, I would have gotten to your level. Do you think that would have been possible? How long did it take you to get so good?"

What was it with people asking that today? Turning to Takumi again, Gii translated and was prepared this time for another vague answer.

This time though, it was slightly different. It was subtle, but it seemed that Takumi was a little more tense than he had been before, and it seemed strange to Gii that such a seemingly innocent question would create such an effect. Perhaps this was why he had been so tense before… probably Gii would never know.

" _I don't want to answer that,"_ Takumi said, turning to Gii. It took Gii a second to realise that instead of being an actual response to the question, Takumi was talking to him, asking him to get him out of this.

Given that Takumi actually seemed upset, Gii couldn't help but feel really bad (even if Takumi's sad face was adorable). He almost seemed to be responding to these questions in the same way that he had responded to people trying to touch him, and Gii silently wondered if those two things were in some way connected.

Still, he wiped those thoughts from his mind, reminding himself that he still had a job to do. What to tell him? "Uuh, Mr Hayama says that he took most of his life to get so good," he recycled the answer from the last time someone asked that question. Hopefully it sounded casual, and not like he was pulling the answer out of his ass.

It seemed to work, as the man laughed a little as though it had been the answer he was looking for. "Alright, well I'd better get going," and he made a move to walk past them, probably to the doors (since most of the people here had gone already).

Everything had been going fine – until the man made his fatal mistake. As he passed them, he went just a tad too close to Takumi, clapping a hand on his shoulder.

When Takumi flinched away, taking a full two steps away from him and almost backing into Gii, it was finally clear why Takumi had this rule. Ordinarily in this kind of situation it would have been Gii's instinct to catch him, to steady him after he had stumbled. Unfortunately, since it was very clearly impossible – it probably would have only made things worse – Gii's hands flailed in the air, unable to help but still following the instinct to do _something._

Without even having noticed the effect he had had, the man continued to walk blindly out of the room.

While Takumi was audibly hyperventilating, Gii had no idea what to do. He couldn't comfort him with touch, so he settled for using his voice. _"Hey… everything's going to be okay… you're alright…"_

What he actually said had to just sort of be soothing nonsense – he had no real idea what the issue was, so he couldn't tailor his attempts at comfort to it. In a way it reminded him of his mom comforting him as a child after a nightmare or a bad fall, the soft words holding no substance and yet making the world seem a better place.

Still, it seemed to be working – eventually his breathing slowed back down, and Gii breathed a sigh of relief.

Takumi said nothing once he was back to normal, merely giving Gii a small smile – it was okay though, he could feel the sincerity in it.

Standing up straight from his slouch, Gii gave himself a little shake. He had almost forgotten where he was, so distracted by what had been going on, and it seemed almost odd to be launched back into that other situation.

In the time that this had gone on, more people had left, and yet there were still people around to come bother them. Gii could see a woman out of the corner of his eye making her way towards them, and the braced himself to translate.

"I heard you earlier, my good man, and I have to say you must be very gifted in your craft." The woman stopped by to say. It took Gii a moment to figure out how this could be worded to Takumi. Eventually he managed it, and Takumi's reaction was overly humble for his genuine talent.

" _Ah, it's not a gift, I just practiced a lot_ ," Takumi explained, and Gii relayed this back to her regardless of his own thoughts on the sentiment. Gii knew all about what it was like to work hard at something – his whole life had been working hard for this position, after all – and he knew full well that it was so much easier to be good at something if you began from a place of being good at it to begin with. There was no two ways about it, Takumi was definitely talented.

When she walked away, not seeming to be bothered about saying anything else (which frankly was relieving; Gii was beginning to realise just how tiring translating was, especially at 2am), the two of them were left alone together.

Gii began to think about what he had been considering with regards to talent vs hard work. Should he tell him that? Would it be too creepy? Gii glanced over at Takumi, unsure. The other man was still looking around the room, perhaps not knowing what to say to Gii…

It occurred to him that there was a good chance that he might not get to see Takumi again (at least, not any time soon) and not talking to him at all would only make the chances of that even higher.

Screwing up his courage, Gii took a deep breath and began to speak. " _Hey, so I think you're –"_

Unfortunately, Takumi had started speaking at exactly the same time. " _Saki-san, I hate to say it but_ –" He also cut himself off when he realised that Gii was also talking.

They both laughed awkwardly, sort of waiting for the other to continue. When neither did, Gii prompted Takumi to go.

He squirmed a little under Gii's gaze, keeping his own fixed somewhere on the floor and fiddling with the bottom of his jumper as he spoke. _"Well, um, all these people are asking me to come to other events, and I… well I wouldn't be able to get around them without someone to translate, and… and I can't help but think that it would be difficult without you there. You've done a really good job today to help me and I wanted to know if you would be willing to do it again. For the other events, I mean."_ He looked up at Gii worriedly. " _Not that you have to. If you can't, or if you don't want to that's fine too."_

Gii blinked. Well, that hadn't been what he was expecting to hear. So… so that meant that Takumi wanted to see him again? Like, actively, not just 'well I guess we'll see each other sometime', but 'when can we meet up again?'.

" _I…"_ he began, unsure what to say, or even if he would be able to make it work. " _Of course I'll do it_ ," he found himself saying. He rarely took risks like this, but sometimes they were very much worth it. Gii hoped that this would be one of these times.

The other's face lit up at this. " _You will? Oh thank goodness, that makes me feel so much better_."

Just the fact that this man wanted to see him again was enough to make Gii do an internal happy dance. The possible beginnings of his interest in Takumi had been piqued with this meeting, and regardless of his personal reservations about having to translate more, he would do it in order to get to see this intriguing new friend more.

Furthermore, the fact that after today he would be entirely capable of choosing another, more experienced translator for the future gigs, and yet he chose Gii anyway had planted a small seed of hope in Gii. He knew that his attempts at being an interpreter had been poorer than he would have liked – his inner perfectionist made him well aware of that – and yet Takumi _still chose him_.

It was an awesome feeling.

Working through his elation, Gii fought back the grin that wanted to creep its way across his face. In order to pull attention away from that, and because nobody else had come to talk to them, Gii suggested, " _hey, maybe we should move out of the way_ ," and motioned for them to walk over to the wall, out of the way where less people would bother them. They had been slowly moving that way anyway, and so it was not so unusual to simply go all the way there.

Despite the fact that Takumi was completely allowed to leave by now, his job was over, he readily agreed and followed Gii over to the wooden panelled walls.

" _So… How's Japan? It's been a while since I was there_ ," Gii started things off light.

Takumi laughed a little. " _Well it was raining when I left yesterday, so it's… moist, I guess_?"

To be fair, Gii didn't know what other kind of response he had been expecting. Nevertheless, it caught him off guard, making him let out a burst of laughter in surprise. " _Touché_ ," he chuckled. " _But still though, what's it been like, growing up in Japan_?"

Takumi frowned. " _I… I don't know? It's been normal for me, so I guess I never really thought about it?"_

Gii nodded. " _Yeah, I guess that's true… I've always found it interesting to consider what it might have been like if I had spent more time in Japan during my teenage years."_

Takumi giggled. _"Really? What do you imagine it might have been like?"_

" _Um,"_ thinking over the many times he had considered this over the years, Gii selected the most relevant one _. "well going to a Japanese high school would certainly have been a different experience, although I can't say for sure whether it would have actually changed my intelligence or career I don't know. I can't bring myself to regret my American upbringing because of this_."

Takumi cocked his head to the side. " _That's a good point… I wonder what kind of school you might have gone to."_

Snorting, Gii replied, " _whichever one cost the most money, I suspect_."

" _You mean your parents wouldn't have taken your feelings into account_?" Takumi asked, eyes wide with trepidation.

Gii shook his head slowly. " _Not… entirely, no, but the quality of the school would have come foremost. And besides, I would have had to go to a boarding school in order to live in Japan, what with all my family being over here in America_."

Takumi grinned. " _Ah, maybe you'd have gone to a school like mine then. I went to a boarding school that was fairly prestigious_."

" _Can you imagine if we'd gone to school together_?" Gii laughed to himself at the thought.

" _That's a really weird thought_ ," Takumi laughed too, and the two of them stood there giggling for a minute.

Once they had calmed down, Gii asked another question. " _So obviously you're a violinist, but I take it that this isn't all you do?"_

Takumi looked a little shy. " _Well, actually I don't normally do this kind of thing. I'm a teacher, actually."_

" _Oh? That's interesting. What_ –"

Gii jumped when he felt a hand land on his shoulders. Takumi giggled a little at him, and, slightly embarrassed, Gii span around to see who it was that had interrupted them. "Dad!" He automatically spoke in English, and breathed a sigh of relief that there was nothing malicious going on. The other man looked a little uneasy, but Gii put it down to being tired and busy.

"What are you up to, son?" His dad asked, responding in English in turn.

Gii put an innocent smile on his face. "Just talking to Hayama-san here."

His dad squinted. "I don't remember seeing that name on the guest list." Well that was a weird thing to say, especially since Gii had been the one to make the guest list in the first place.

Putting it down to exhaustion again, Gii pretended like it wasn't strange at all and smiled. "That's because he was the violinist today. Did you not enjoy his playing?"

He had been entirely expecting for this to placate his father. He would laugh, then, Gii would laugh, and it wouldn't be awkward any more.

Instead, his father's face went pale, and still, as though he had just heard some very bad news. "The violinist, eh?" He stared at Takumi intensely. Gii felt a little sorry for him – the man probably had understood little of their conversation, and may have no idea why he was being stared at. Gii couldn't even offer him an explanation, not understanding the situation himself.

"Yeah… Did you like the music?" Gii tried, wondering if that had perhaps been it. Had it simply not been up to standard?

This seemed to only confuse his father, however. "What?" He frowned. "Yes, yes, the music was fine," he said dismissively. It didn't stop him staring though, and Gii shared some confused looks with Takumi as they waited for Gii's father to explain himself. Takumi took a few sips of his glass of water, presumably just for something to do, and in many ways Gii was jealous of him for having that out.

He never did stop glaring at Takumi though, and eventually turned away from his examining of Takumi. "Your mother and I will be leaving shortly," he said. "You may leave soon too, if you wish. Just make sure you let someone know that you've left."

Without another word of explanation, he then walked away.

" _What was all that about_?" Takumi asked cautiously.

" _I… That was my father. He was just letting me know that he's going to be leaving soon_ ," Gii told him.

Neither of them addressed the strange behaviour of Gii's father. " _Talking of leaving, I should probably also head off."_ Takumi yawned, and it was the most adorable thing he'd ever seen.

Gii coughed to cover his distraction. " _Yeah, that sounds like a good plan, it's quite late_."

Despite what he'd just said, Takumi made no move to leave at all.

Watching him begin to fiddle with the bottom of his jumper, Gii waited for Takumi to say… whatever it was that he had in mind.

" _Um… shall I contact you when I find out if I get any more gigs here in New York then_?" Takumi asked timidly.

Gii raised an eyebrow. " _Well yeah, I said I would, didn't I_?"

Takumi nodded. " _I know, but I just wanted to make sure_." He continued to squirm. For a second Gii wanted to reply, to say something more, to make it clear that there was no way he was going to miss out on seeing him again – but before he could, Takumi spoke again.

" _Look, I… I just wanted to say that I'm thankful for everything that happened today_." He continued to fidget, and Gii smiled to see it.

" _No need to thank me_ ," Gii said gently. He wasn't about to ask for him to clarify what he meant by that – he was pretty sure he knew, and for at least one of the reasons he was pretty sure that Takumi didn't want to talk about it.

" _I should…"_ Takumi coughed, " _I should go get my things and leave_." Gii nodded. " _I can't wait to see you again… okay bye._ " Takumi fled, making his way quickly in the direction of his dressing room, not leaving Gii any time to reply. He could have gone after Takumi… but it was enough to know that Takumi wanted to see him again.

And, more importantly, that they would definitely see each other again.

Hopefully soon.


	4. Chapter 4

Who needs consistancy in your chapter lengths amirite? Anyway, this chapter would have been even longer, but i decided to push some of the scenes that were going to be in it into the next chapter (plus it would have taken even longer to write). Anyway, enjoy!

* * *

Three days later found Gii standing in his home office staring at his old Japanese grammar books. He hadn't had need to touch them since he finished college – his use of Japanese had been minimal outside of his family, and with them he could get away with forgetting a word or two. They had sat there on the bookshelf of his office at home for years, untouched.

There they sat on his bookshelf, taking up a whole shelf of their own. Despite having grown up with Japanese, and considering himself pretty fluent in the language, his parents had insisted that if he wasn't going to go to high school in Japan then he needed to study the language. It had been fairly easy for him, although it had been a shame to turn something he found fun before into a chore of a subject.

What had happened last week had reminded him just how rusty he was at it though. He had become accustomed to speaking English at home and at work, with little time to talk to anyone in Japanese. He really hadn't realised just how bad he had got at it.

Well… if he was going to be helping Takumi out more, he would need this. There was no way he was going to go through intense translating again without a better vocabulary.

Sighing, he pulled one of the books down and examined it, looking at the cover art and flipping through the worn, yellowed pages. It felt like he was admitting defeat, in a way, to know that he wasn't as good at Japanese as he should be.

Scanning through the most basic books, Gii was reminded of his childhood.

Although he had refused to stay in Japan for his high school schooling, quite a lot of his childhood had been spent in Japan, mostly visiting family. It held fond memories for him still – whether that was a good thing or not he didn't know.

While with Takumi he had been brought to the train of thought that he had sometimes pondered in the past – genuinely, what would it have been like if he had agreed to let his parents send him to school in Japan? His main concern at the time had been the fact that none of his friends would be there in Japan, and for a fourteen year old boy it would have been the end of the world to be moved to an entirely different school.

Besides (although he would never have admitted it at the time) he had been very nervous at the idea of going to school in a different country. His entire education to that point had been in America, and he had become accustomed to that, plus his extra tutoring. At that point he had been fairly proficient in Japanese, but probably not to the level which would have been needed to understand school in Japanese, not with all of the terminology needed. It had intimidated him to the point of refusing to go no matter what his parents attempted to bribe him with.

Not to mention the fact that he hadn't been able to actually tell his parents any of these things. His father had been particularly strict during his childhood, insisting that Gii remain confident at all times, as befitting the future leader of their company. It didn't matter to him whether Gii felt that confidence honestly, only that a show of strength was there. Gii had managed to do that in his refusal to go to Japan, and to this day part of Gii was sure that it had made his father respect him in some ways.

Flipping through the book, Gii was sure that he knew all of this. It was all the most basic things – even when he had been taking lessons, he had known this book was beneath him. Actually he didn't know why he owned it to begin with. Chucking it behind him in the general direction of his bin, he made a mental note to have a clear out of the books he didn't need. There was no point in keeping his bookshelf cluttered when he could be buying more useful books about business and the like.

Grabbing a book he was sure was more advanced, he sat down in his desk chair to study it a little. Perhaps he shouldn't be so relaxed here – he kicked his feet up onto the desk and loosened his tie – but it was home, it didn't matter. The chances of his mom coming in and scolding him for putting his feet on the furniture were low, and anyway she'd likely be more distracted by the sight of him brushing up on his Japanese. She'd been bugging him to for the last three years or so, ever since he stopped his formal lessons in favour or studying for his final exams.

How long it had been that he sat there and read the book he couldn't say. All he knew was that at one point he looked up and it was dark out – he didn't remember seeing so much as a sunset. Still, he still felt motivated even after hours of reading. When he knew that there was no exam at the end of it, no punishment if he didn't do enough, studying like this seemed less like a chore and a lot more fun. Not that he wasn't tired – he had had a full day of work before this, after all – but he was very much still willing to continue.

He read on, doing his best to ignore the way his eyelids felt heavy and threatened to close every so often.

Gii awoke and immediately sat up.

He hadn't even registered falling asleep, and it felt odd to him to wake up in his home office instead of his bed. His chair, usually so soft and comfortable, dug into his back in ways he couldn't have imagined possible, and his ass was completely numb. So much for expensive, high end chairs.

Frowning as he rubbed his eyes, he tried to remember his dream. It had been about… something from his childhood? A memory of a childhood friend in Japan?

Mentally he grasped at the details, but they faded from his mind faster than he could recall what had happened. It had left him feeling bittersweet though – perhaps it was a memory best left untouched.

Picking the grammar book up from where it had fallen to the floor, Gii dusted it off a little and placed it on the desk. By this point his parents would almost certainly be wondering where he was – it wasn't unusual for him to be late for dinner, but this was a bit excessive.

For a while all thoughts of Japan and Japanese were abandoned in favour of food. Abandoning his work for now, he made his way through the corridors and down their excessively wide staircase. Even once downstairs, he had to make his way through many rooms to reach the kitchen, which was at the back of the house overlooking the garden.

His parents weren't around at that particular time, which made things a little easier; he would have no-one to explain himself to.

It wasn't until he had eaten, and was full and satisfied, that his thoughts turned to that dream again. There had been something hauntingly familiar to it, but Gii simply couldn't put his finger on what exactly it was.

It put him on edge a little, and he did his best to put it out of his mind. It would do him no good to dwell on that which gave him the heebie-jeebies, and if he couldn't remember, well there was nothing he could do about that.

As he sat on his bed, contemplating life as he did sometimes, his thoughts abruptly turned to Takumi. Why it was that he was associating Takumi with his dream he didn't know, but it wasn't necessarily an unwelcome change – in fact, Gii was much more happy to marvel over Takumi's wide and expressive eyes than he was to feel sad over his dream.

He was just so good looking, and he'd been so kind… Gii could feel the slight blush pooling in his cheeks. For once he didn't try to get rid of it – he was alone, it didn't matter because no-one but him would know.

Perhaps it felt a little creepy to be crushing on someone he barely knew, but Gii's thoughts were already spiralling into fantasies about what might have happened if he'd made a move that night.

That hope which had been curled tight in his chest ever since Takumi had asked him to interpret for him again soon began to unfurl – the knowledge that they would see one another sometime soon.

For now Gii ignored the fact that he had little to no chance of forming a relationship with Takumi, and couldn't help but hope that Takumi might reach out sooner than anticipated. He almost certainly had Gii's contact details… It was entirely possible that he could talk to Gii before then.

Really he couldn't wait to talk to Takumi more, to get to know him better.

No matter which happened first, Gii was determined to pick up the pace on his Japanese and provide an even better service for Takumi next time.

Maybe if he was even better at it Takumi would be even more likely to talk to him more. That would be great.

" _What's for lunch_?" Gii asked as he walked into the kitchen the next day, nearly blinded by the reflections off all the chrome in the room.. He was starving after a whole morning of procrastinating doing his actual work by skim reading some of the light novels he had forgotten he owned. It had actually been a surprise when he had come across it on the bottom shelf of his bookcase, hidden behind some boxes.

Not that it was the most sophisticated reading, but it was certainly interesting to do a serious amount of reading in a language other than English for once. Even though he hadn't done it in a while, the books themselves were familiar, the plots coming back to him as he read through them. It was fun, another reminder of his childhood, a trip down memory lane.

And, of course, assisting him on his quest to improve his Japanese.

His mom seemed surprised that he spoke in Japanese, jumping around from where she stood at the counter making sandwiches. " _Giichi, honey, you startled me_!" She exclaimed, clutching a hand to her chest. " _We're just having sandwiches, you know how your father's on this health kick at the moment_."

Gii nodded, moving closer to give her a quick hug. " _Sounds good. Are we eating together_?"

His mom nodded. _"Sure, if that's what you want. Your father is working though, he's in his study and the last time I saw him he seemed pretty busy. You can take his plate to him if you want though_." She held out a plate with a brown bread cheese sandwich on it, and Gii wrinkled his nose at the sight - if he was offered the same one, he might have to decline and make his own lunch for once.

It didn't surprise him that his mom picked up on his obvious distaste, however - she laughed at his expression, reassuring him that, " _I'm not going to make you eat one too, don't worry_." She gestured at the ingredients behind her. " _Look, there are plenty of other things for you to choose from. Now off you go_." She patted his back and Gii obediently set off for his dad's study.

On the opposite side of the house, Gii was wondering what had possessed him to agree to bring the lunch over. It was clear to him now that his mom simply hadn't wanted to make the journey herself through the long corridors of their large house; but still, that didn't mean Gii had to enjoy it himself. There were simply too many stairs to climb - Gii was considering asking if they could move simply to get away from doing so much walking.

By the time Gii actually reached the room in question, he was panting. He had always thought of himself as fairly physically fit, but somehow this had completely wiped him out, totally stripping the energy from him to the point where he had to lean against the wall for a second to catch his breath.

Gii was a polite son - he knocked on the door to the study instead of just barging in (this habit may also have been the effect of being shouted at many times for entering without knocking). After a couple of silent seconds, during which Gii wondered exactly how angry he would be entitled to get if he had walked all this way only to not deliver the damn sandwich at all, a terse voice finally called out, "come in!"

Peeking a head around the thick wooden door, Gii started off by showing the plate of food. " _Mom made you lunch_ ," he said, hoping that he wasn't interrupting anything important.

Fortunately his father wasn't in the middle of a call or anything, and he actually looked sort of pleased to see Gii. " _Ah, thank you_ ," he said, appearing less confused than his mom had when he spoke Japanese. " _Give your mom my thanks as well_."

Clearly there was to be no time for chit chat - probably just as well, since Gii was starving still and had yet to have his own sandwich. giving a small theatrical bow, Gii backed out of the room, gaining himself a head nod in return as he did.

Well at least his father hadn't got angry. Presumably he was as hungry as Gii was - and thinking about it again only made his stomach rumble harder.

Gii hurried back over to the kitchen, nearly slipping a few times on the wooden floors in his haste. The only thoughts running through his mind were 'food food food', and his stomach growled loudly again several times. It truly was a nightmare, and Gii hoped that his mom had finished making whatever his lunch was. Truly she was a godsend on his days working from home.

Upon reaching the kitchen again, he was presented with a plate with two sandwiches on - ham this time. Much better.

His mom patted his cheek. " _Come on, let's eat in the living room_ ," she said, walking past him and leading the way across the hall into their living room. Well, it was technically the family living room, the one they used for their own use, that actually felt lived in. Not the larger, grander one which his parents used for entertaining. That had always felt way too stuffy for Gii, the fear of spilling something on the cream sofas and carpets there much too high.

Sitting them down on the one facing the tv, his mom unmuted the show she already had playing. It was a Japanese drama of some kind, the sort aimed at middle aged women like his mom. It wasn't to his tastes at all - yet it was in Japanese, and so part of him was riveted to it, eager to hear Japanese conversations after so long. It felt strange and yet familiar, like it had been half remembered.

His mom was clearly similarly engaged, and yet he could see the odd stares she kept throwing him out of the corner of his eye.

It made him a little self-conscious, and he was suddenly more aware of the sauce dripping down his chin than he had been before. Wiping it away, he did his best to ignore his mom staring.

Well, it worked, until it became clear that she was no longer paying attention to the show, and was instead staring at him outright, cocking her head to the side as though she was thinking very hard about something.

" _What is it_?" Gii asked eventually, unable to take it any longer. " _Have I got something on my face_?" He rubbed his chin again, thinking that perhaps the sauce had got a little further round his face than he had thought.

His mom shrugged. " _I just was remembering your last year of college when you began to refuse to speak Japanese with us once your lessons were over_." She didn't explicitly say it, but Gii knew she was asking what had caused his change of heart.

Gii shrugged. " _Yeah, well, I guess I think differently about it now that I'm not being tested on it_." He avoided mentioning exactly what had triggered this resurgence in his interest in Japanese – he was unsure how they would react to it, judging by his father's reaction upon seeing him.

Laughing, his mom turned to face him properly. " _Giichi, that was never our intention in making you learn Japanese. We just wanted to make sure that you wouldn't forget your heritage, since you were so against going to japan itself. We never meant to make you feel bad about it, sweetie_."

Gii chewed on his lip in thought. " _I'm sure you didn't_ …" he said slowly. He couldn't exactly out and out say that part of him was sure that the opposite was true, but he was pretty sure that some sadistic part of his parents wanted to torture him with it. Just a little bit.

" _Not that I'm unhappy that you're back on it_ ," his mom reassured him. " _I'm all for it_."

Gii nodded, and stood up. Picking up both of their empty plates, he said, " _well I'm off to work some more… see you at dinner_?"

He didn't really wait around for an answer, instead heading over to the kitchen to put the dishes back. Glad that he had got away with it – for now – he hurried back over to his office, eager to forget about the awkwardness of this all.

Really he had no-one other to blame than himself for this. If he hadn't made the decision to brush up on his Japanese he wouldn't be going through this.

Oh well – hopefully it would be worth it.

Gii took in a deep breath, and gazed up at the glass restaurant doors in front of him.

Everything in him told him to run, to leave, that this would turn out to be no good.

To be fair, based on past experience that wasn't such a crazy reaction.

Somehow, despite his terrible mood, the weather had the audacity to be good. There was a cool breeze, but the sun was shining brightly, making the world seem slightly better than it was.

Breathing out and taking in another breath, Gii did his best to remember that he knew this restaurant well. He had held countless business meetings and deals here, as well as it hosting many family outings. The staff here knew him by name due to the frequency of his visits, and he appreciated that kind of service. All in all, it was a place he enjoyed being.

And yet.

Heart race increasing with every step, Gii walked cautiously towards those ornately decorated doors. The doorman jumped to pull them open them for him, and Gii smiled appreciatively at him as he walked by. He didn't recognise this one; he must be new, Gii thought to himself.

Now, where had his parents said she would be sat…? Pulling his phone out of his jacket pocket, Gii scrolled though his text messages with his mom, trying to find the ones where they had talked about this date. They were quite far back, past all of her reminders for him to eat, since this date had been arranged quite far in advance. Gii hadn't been happy about it back then either, but there was little he could do about it.

 **Mom** [16:07]  
She's such a nice girl, I just know you'll love her.

 **Me** [16:29]  
don't you think it's a little early to be talking about love

 **Mom** [17:15]  
Not at all! She would be a wonderful asset to the company.

 **Me** [17:17]  
sure mom, if you say so

 **Mom** [18:01]  
You two will meet at the restaurant at 12:30. She says she will be in the back corner, probably in a red dress.

Then, a later text from earlier today.

 **Mom** [10:44]  
Good luck honey!

Cringing, Gii slipped his phone back into his jacket pocket and straightened out his suit. How long could he plausibly get away with 'brushing off' his coat? He wondered. Well he was currently testing that hypothesis by doing just that – quite long it would appear. Was he quite obviously stalling? Absolutely, but he didn't really care.

Sighing, Gii acknowledged that yeah, he was beginning to get some weird looks. Ignoring them, he pretended like everything was normal, and made his way to the back of the restaurant.

It would be helpful that his mystery date would be in a red dress – but at the same time, it was so… gaudy? Bright? Something about it seemed like she was trying too hard for a lunch date.

The low lighting of the restaurant didn't help him in his search, but, to her credit, there she was at the back of the room, sat in a curved booth, almost hidden away from sight of the rest of the patrons. No wonder it had taken so long for him to find her.

Time to act.

Putting on his most winning smile, Gii walked confidently up to the table. The movement caught the attention of the woman sat there, and she looked up at him, giving him a fake looking smile in return. Well, he was hardly one to judge. He was doing the exact same thing.

"Hello there," the woman spoke, her voice low and sultry. it was completely cringy, and Gii did his best to keep that instinctive reaction off his face.

Clearing his throat, he replied, "hi." Shit, that was way too awkward.

Doing his best to cover up his nerves, he busied himself with sitting down, and getting himself comfortable. If he was going to endure this he may as well feel good while doing it, right?

Then it occurred to him that he still didn't know her name. Fuck, was he meant to know her name? He frantically tried to recall the messages he had shared with his mom about this date, and he couldn't remember at all whether her name had been mentioned at any point.

Giving up on worrying about it, Gii tried to deflect it by introducing himself in the hopes that she would give her own name in return, even if she thought he might already know it. "My name is -"

That was as far as he got before he was interrupted by a giggle. "I know who you are, silly," the other women was amused. "You're everywhere on the news, you're Giichi Saki."

Oh no. Had Gii just set himself up for an afternoon of being called his full name? That just reminded him of being reprimanded by his parents, no matter how many other businessmen called him by his full name every day.

Before he could even attempt to correct her (plenty of people were fine with calling him Gii instead, it just took him asking) she already had moved along in the conversation.

"How are you?" The woman asked, clearly eager to keep a conversation going.

Gii felt a little bad that she had got roped into his issues, and decided to throw her a bone. "I'm good, thank you," he replied politely. "What about yourself?"

She looked very pleased to get a good response from him, and launched into her own triage of explanations on how she was. "Well, I'm actually not doing so great today - first when I woke up I'd run out of my favourite moisturiser, so I had to get one of the servants to run out and pick up some more, and by the time she'd got back I was already running late, so I had to do my make up super rushed, and I didn't even realise until I got to work that my eyeliner was totally crooked the whole time I was in the car, and I was super embarrassed! I had to go into the restroom to fix it up because I just knew I'd feel terrible all day if I didn't make it better. I tried to tell myself, 'Madison, you sort yourself out, but then my whole day at work was still thrown off because of it. I swear, this date is the only thing that's making that better." She batted her eyelashes at him, her flirting completely obvious.

Gii couldn't tell if she wanted to date him for him at all, or if she just wanted to get at his inheritance. It was probably the second, which really just made him sad.

Nodding awkwardly, Gii pretended like he could relate to her problems in the slightest. "Oh, that's... that's too bad."

"I know right? Oh! I saw about that gala you held a few weeks ago! It was so great, I wish I could have been there but my daddy had a conference out of town, so we all had to go along and support him. I'm sure you understand, but..." She shifted slightly closer to him over the table, "I wish we could have met even sooner, you know?"

Her intentions were fairly clear, and by intentions he meant her breasts. Her boobs were pushed up by the motion of her having her arms crossed under them as she rested on the table. It was obviously meant to draw attention to them, and if Gii had been attracted to women in any capacity he was sure that it would have entirely distracted him from anything else.

As it was, it certainly distracted him, but in the most unpleasant of ways. Doing his best to keep his eyes trained on her face - anywhere other than her boobs, really - Gii said, "oh, thank you. It was a good night. Really it was a case of the more the merrier - we had so many guests, I might not have had time to speak to you even if you had come." He smiled at her gently so as to not make her think that he meant he would have gone out of his way to not speak to her if she had been a guest that night.

Then he was reminded again of the highlight of that night; watching Takumi in his element, playing his violin, talking to Takumi, watching him be praised by the other guests as much as he deserved. It served as a reminder of exactly why women weren't his type, why he didn't like going on these dates.

Why he really needed to tell his parents to stop trying to set him up with women.

Then his mind began to run wild. In his imagination, it was not Madison who sat before him in this gaudy, overpriced, restaurant, but sweet Takumi. Gii could almost see how he would gape at the decorations, how Gii would enjoy spoiling him, treating him to the food they served here.

It was a much more enjoyable date, and it was entirely fictional.

A bitter taste in Gii's mouth, the waiter chose this moment to arrive. "May I take your order?" He asked, a pleasant customer service smile on his face.

If Gii hadn't been so familiar with the menu in this place he might have floundered at this point, neither he nor his date having picked up the menus which sat in the centre of the table between them.

Madison seemed not so fortunate, sending Gii probably the first genuine expression yet this date, one of helpless floundering.

Taking pity on her, Gii quickly ordered for both of them. Perhaps he would come across to the waiter as a controlling date, but really it was less than she deserved for not bothering to look at the menu.

Once the waiter had gone, Madison's sultry demeanour returned, changing her once again into someone whom Gii had little interest in knowing.

"So... I heard that you're going to be taking over from your father in a few years..." she said, shuffling round the curved leather seat of their booth a little. How could she have known that? It was something that Gii and his father had discussed a few times, but no definitive plans had been made yet for his father's retirement.

"Aah..." Gii said, trying to come up with the right words. "I... I can't really say, I don't think any of us know for sure when the handover will happen... I wouldn't want to tell you anything in case it doesn't happen..." he chuckled nervously.

Madison slid closer still. "I heard from my mom that they want you to be married when the takeover happens... you know I think they're right, someone who has that much responsibility on their shoulders really needs someone who can support them... that they can rely on..." She rested a hand on his left shoulder, squeezing it slightly as though the 'responsibility on his shoulders' was physical.

Gii did his best to move away a little; not that it was really possible, he was right by the edge of the seat anyway. "Aaah... well I suppose so, yes, but I haven't been able to find anyone like that yet." He laughed humourlessly. She couldn't have known (or could she?) about the agreement that he had with his parents, that he would get married before being allowed to take over the company. It was one thing that he knew his parents would never compromise on, and yet it was something that he wasn't all too keen on. It was the reasoning for these incessant dates; his parents doing their best to make him meet the 'right' girl.

So far that hadn't exactly happened.

Most of the dates had ended in him politely pretending like he might call them back, and then promptly deleting their numbers from his phone and making an excuse to his parents as to why he couldn't date them. He felt bad, but most of them were about as subtle as this particular date was being. They wanted him for his money and nothing more, they liked the idea of being a trophy wife and never working a day in their lives.

To an extent he could see the appeal of that lifestyle - and yet it meant that he had nothing in common with these women. It was rather sad, really.

Then he noticed that Madison wasn't actually looking at him, but rather at a distant point over his shoulder. Her expression was still the same, that of trying to cajole him into wanting to marry her, but something in her eyes betrayed something else - concern? Fear?

Covertly Gii tried to see what she was looking at.

There was a man with sunglasses sat on a table by himself on the opposite end of the restaurant, conveniently positioned so that he had an excellent view of their table. He appeared to be watching them, and if Gii weren't so used to being watched by others a lot for who he was, it might have unnerved him slightly.

As it was it was still odd - presumably he was connected to Madison in some way? An ex, perhaps? Or even a current lover - parents in business could be pushy about these things even with their children already involved with someone else.

Looking back at Madison, the expression of worry seemed only to intensify - and so did her efforts to seduce him. She pushed her arms closer to her torso, effectively pushing her boobs into having extreme cleavage and putting them very close to Gii.

Gii did his best to lean away from her without making it look weird, although he didn't think he was really succeeding.

"You know, after this we could try to get somewhere alone together... get to know one another a little better," she purred, and Gii mentally gagged. The idea of doing that with a woman... well, maybe when he got married he would be forced to for the sake of having children, but there was little other reason he might concede to it.

Then it occurred to Gii that the mysterious man might be there for another reason.

For the first few dates his parents had set him up with, they had made sure someone was watching him, to make sure that he didn't completely blow them off and make a mockery of their family. By now they trusted him not to, but if this woman was unused to the world of dating in this way...

Narrowing his eyes, Gii tried to look at Madison with fresh eyes. "Do you actually want to be here?" Gii asked discerningly. While she might be completely genuine, there was always the chance that…

Madison's eyes widened. "W-what? No, o-of course I –" For the first time she stumbled over her words, a second of fear flashing through her carefully calculated mask of overt sexuality.

Not for more than a second – but that was enough to tell Gii all he needed to know. He leaned in closer. Eyes flicking over to the secretive man, Gii did his best to look as though he was saying something intimate, rather than, "it's okay, I don't want to be here either."

A moment of hesitation hit him – what if he had been wrong and he'd just massively insulted her? – but the way she slumped against the seat immediately after in relief proved his theory right.

"Oh thank god." She sounded about as fed up as Gii was with this whole thing. She rubbed a hand over her face, regardless of the heavy make up slathered there. "My dad made me come to this, even though I begged him not to." She made a face. "Not that I don't like you, but I'd like to choose my own boyfriend, you know?"

"I get that more than you know." Gii was impressed he managed to keep a straight face. Well… maybe not a _straight_ one…

Thankfully she didn't seem to notice, and smiled up at him – genuinely this time. "I'm glad you understand," she said, looking down as she began to fiddle with the tablecloth. "I was worried you might get mad if I didn't seem really into you… I've had a couple of dates like these where they seemed to think I had to really like them, no matter what."

Gii knew exactly the kind of people she was talking about, had been 'friends' with them in college. He nodded. "No, of course not," he said gently. "I know we can't challenge our parents that much, but we can make the best of a bad situation, eh?"

By the time the waiter arrived with their food, the two of them were becoming fast friends. Gii might not be sexually attracted to women, but that didn't mean he couldn't be good friends with them. Given their similar situations, Gii was pretty sure that they could make a good friendship simply by complaining about their parents.

At least when his parents asked how this date went, he could honestly tell them that they thought they would be better off as friends.

Although it did mean that he would have to be subjected to this kind of thing innumerably more times until he had had enough and gave in to marrying one of them. Hopefully it wouldn't be too terrible.

Maybe they would be nice enough to act as his beard, and allow him to maybe pursue a relationship with a man at the same time? (He refused to let himself imagine that it could maybe be Takumi, although that would be wonderful.) It was something he had known ever since he knew he would have to get married to a woman, that no matter what, that much is what he would be reduced to having in a relationship that actually mattered to him.

Needing to take a pee break in the middle of work was irritating. Somehow Gii always managed to be interrupted at whatever time he was most in the zone, but unfortunately the call of nature could not be ignored.

After doing his business, Gii loitered in the bathroom for a little while longer. It was only when he was removed from his immediate work that he ever realised just how long he had been sat down at his desk for, and he tried to make the best of the rare moments which he allowed himself to relax in.

Gripping the bench the sinks were in, Gii stared at himself in the mirror. He was alone in the bathroom, it didn't matter if he acted a little oddly.

Did he look a little tired? It was so impossible to tell on your own face, not when you saw it day in day out.

" _Get it together_ ," he muttered to himself. What he should be worrying about was this latest deal, not how tired he was. That was unimportant.

" _Back to the old grind_ ," he said – and then realised that between his first line and the second that some other employees had walked in and were looking at him strangely.

Years of practice was the only thing preventing him from blushing. To be caught by his inferiors talking to himself in a language they didn't know – he must have looked slightly insane.

Quickly he fled the scene, keeping his face as straight as possible. The only thing worse than making a fool of himself in front of his employees was admitting that that had happened. He had to just pretend, keep calm and show no fear. Like facing off wild animals.

No. He refused to be embarrassed by this. It wasn't weird… people were allowed to talk to themselves on occasion, he shouldn't need to be worried about that.

Just maybe not in public places.

Two weeks later Gii had read though a significant amount of his books.

Honestly he had forgotten just how many he owned. It did make sense, given how long he had studied it for, and yet some part of him had forgotten all the hours he had spend buying various textbooks and workbooks for it.

Only about a quarter of the harder books were left unread. To be fair, a lot of those which had been read were well below Gii's level, even with his lack of practice in the last few years. He knew full well that getting through these last few ten or so would take much longer, give that they were much more advanced, and may finally contain aspects of the language that he had completely forgotten or was unfamiliar with.

The whole process had been fairly peaceful and enjoyable, with Gii spending his evenings and free time quickly studying a little bit more, adding to his repertoire with every session. It had been much better than he remembered it being as a child, and it had really made Gii think again more about what it might have been like to be in Japan for school, to know all this stuff instinctively.

He had actually grown accustomed to speaking Japanese around the house as well. His parents had done it for years, and it wasn't like he had never done it ever, but just out of habit and convenience he mostly stuck to English. His parents could understand it perfectly fine, and he could think in it more easily, so why shouldn't he?

At least, that had always been his reasoning.

Two weeks of mainly speaking – and trying to think – in Japanese had completely changed that. His parents seemed to have been enjoying it, although he had also garnered a few more weird looks for it.

Gii found himself reading one of his grammar books while he was supposed to be working. He was allowed to take breaks sometimes – and anyway, he was doing something which was technically productive, so it counted, right?

Still, maybe he looked a little too relaxed, too much like he was having fun – which was why when his dad walked through the door and saw him like that, he seemed a little irritated, judging by the frown that wrinkled up his face as he took Gii's appearance in. So maybe he had his tie undone, and maybe his shoes had been kicked off, and maybe he'd run his hand through his hair a few times and messed it up. That wasn't a reason to be told off, was it?

Closing the office door behind him, his dad squinted at him. " _Are you... are you still on this Japanese kick_?" He asked incredulously.

Slowly Gii nodded, unsure about where this was going. " _Yeah, I... I wanted to read up on it some more_ ," he said, trying to deflect some of his tension.

His dad seemed unappeased by this, still frowning. " _But why now_?" He asked.

Gii blinked. " _Huh_?" He said eloquently.

His dad sighed. " _Why now? Why not when you were younger, when you could have learned it more easily? Or when you were still in college, when you were getting so good at it? It just seems a little pointless now_." He sniffed, irritated.

Gii froze. Shit, what could he say? The memory of his dad getting all... weird about Takumi was still fresh in his mind, still so confusing. There was no way he could confess that that was the reason - it would likely only trigger the same response, and then he would be back to square one about everything.

Doing his best to seem calm, Gii shrugged. " _Does there have to be a specific reason? Why could I not have just had a change of heart and a kick in the backside of my motivation_?" He thought it was a pretty solid argument.

However, his dad did not seem to agree. Raising his eyebrows, he said, " _well no, i don't think so. Like I said, it's been so long - something major has to have changed, to make you think about all this in the first place. No, I don't buy it at all_." He nodded to himself, self-satisfied.

Shit. What kind of response could he give to such an astute claim? He was totally right, something big had changed, but... how to approach it?

An understanding look came over his dad's face. " _Ah, it was that kid the other night, wasn't it?"_ He looked a little lost. _"I don't remember much of that night... your mother and I had a little too much of the wine... what did he do again? Play the violin or something_?"

Gii nodded, too panicked to give a more detailed answer.

His dad shook his head. " _You had to speak some Japanese for him, right? Well, I guess that makes sense_." He clapped Gii on the shoulder. " _Keep up the good work then_."

The impromptu meeting ended on a much lighter note than it had begun, and Gii sat there, stunned, for a good few seconds after his dad walked out.

What had even gone on just now? His dad had completely guessed Gii's thoughts, which was rare now if it didn't involve a business deal of some kind, and he had done it while hardly being able to remember it?

Oh well, hopefully his parents wouldn't think much of it being Takumi which influenced him to keep going. They couldn't possibly have guessed at the reason Gii would like Takumi enough to do that, right?

No, there was no way. He shook his head to himself. He had never given them any indication of his preference for men, always politely engaging with any women his parents tried to set him up with in order to keep them happy. There were only so many ways he could hope to rebel, and he knew full well that this was one of the things that he would have to start seriously thinking about soon, especially since the dates were becoming more and more frequent. He did enjoy making his parents happy – this had been one of the things that made relearning Japanese worth it – but what would he be willing to sacrifice to do that? His own happiness?

He shook his head again, trying to rid his head of these thoughts. He had numbers to crunch, and tenses to learn. Worrying about this could wait for another day.


End file.
